Lots of chirping and squawking could be heard coming from Building 4 at the Fairplex on Sunday when Everybody's Bird Mart came to town for the final time this year.
Around 400 vendors crowded into the massive hall and the building became even more packed as throngs of eager guests filed in at the 9:30 a.m. opening.
Bird lovers of all ages and backgrounds, armed with wheeled baskets, cages and their wallets scoured the aisles in search of the birds and accessories of their dreams.
Patrons in the market for a feathered friend had thousands of options at their disposal.
Birds of every imaginable size, color and texture were on hand and were being sold for an extremely wide range of prices.
Zebra finches, creatures just slightly smaller than the average pager, could be had for as little as $4 a piece.
At the other end of the value spectrum were mature cockatoos and macaws with proven breeding records selling for as much as $1,600 each, a whopping 400 times the price of a tiny zebra finch.
Of course, most of the birds being offered fell somewhere in between the extremes as far as dollar value was concerned.
There was definitely a bird for every budget.
Better still, four veterinarians were on duty making sure there were no overcrowded cages or seriously ill animals.
Of course, the birds themselves are only part of the investment.
Birds need cages to live in, food to eat and the occasional toy to entertain them, among other things.
As a result, there were many vendors peddling such necessities, and some were even selling both birds and accessories.
Vendor Steve Duz of San Diego said there are numerous knowledgeable and friendly breeders who attend the Pomona events regularly.
Duz called the show “a pretty cool place to get birds and information.”
However, birds and bird-related items were not the only things up for sale. There were at least two groups selling rabbits, some for as little as $5, while another booth was offering a trio of eight-week-old Dachshund puppies for $300 each.
Another booth was selling a massive array of bug specimens from exotic locations such as Thailand and Africa, and included beetles, moths, butterflies, spiders, scorpions and centipedes of all shapes, colors and sizes.
There were even a few vendors who were selling things that had nothing to do with animals, such as one selling sunglasses, another who was selling seashells and another promoting life-sized metal palm trees, complete with spotlights in place of fruit.
Needless to say, Everybody's Bird Mart was very well attended by buyers and sellers alike.
Indeed, the inaugural Bird Mart, held 27 years ago, was a much smaller affair.
“The first show had about 40 vendors,” said Jim Williams, show promoter and son of the husband and wife team who founded the event. “It's grown gradually.”
A big factor in that growth is probably the prices; Duz said prices at the show were about two-thirds of retail.
As if the lower prices were not enticing enough, Williams and his team also held a raffle for cash door prizes.
Three people won $50, while one lucky patron received $100.
With prizes like that, it is not surprising there are currently 20,000 names on the show’s mailing list.
Everybody's Bird Mart is held four times a year.
The next one will be held on March 20.
For more information call Williams at (805) 494- 1499.
Tom Anderson can be reached at tanderson1@ulv.edu.